The technology of the present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus including a cover opening and closing mechanism.
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus including a cover opening and closing mechanism as illustrated in FIG. 8 to FIG. 11, has been proposed.
In this image forming apparatus, a button 7 having a protrusion 7a with a sharpened distal end is supported to a cover 6 so as to be rotatable about a shaft 8. The button 7 is always urged outward (upward in FIG. 8) by a spring 9. As illustrated in FIG. 8, in the state in which the cover 6 is closed, since a locking stepped portion 7b is engaged with a peripheral edge of a hole 6a of the cover 6, the button 7 maintains the illustrated posture. At a rear surface of the cover 6, a fixed hook 10 is fixed.
At an image forming apparatus body 2 side, a movable hook having engaging surfaces 11a and 11b forming a stepwise shape is supported so as to be rotatable about a shaft 12. The movable hook 11 is always urged to the button 7 side (a right side in FIG. 8) by a spring 13. As illustrated in FIG. 8, in the state in which the cover 6 is closed, since the engaging surface 11a is engaged with the protrusion 7a of the button 7, the movable hook 11 maintains the illustrated posture. In this case, since the movable hook 11 is engaged with the fixed hook 10 of the cover 6 side, the closed state of the cover 6 is locked, so that it is not possible to open the cover 6 in this state.
In order to open the cover 6 from the closed state of FIG. 8, the button 7 is pushed against the urging force of the spring 9. As illustrated in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, the button 7 is rotated about the shaft 8 in a direction (a clockwise direction) indicated by an arrow a, and the distal end portion of the protrusion 7a abuts the engaging surface 11a of the movable hook 11, so that the movable hook 11 is rotated about a shaft 12 in a direction (a counterclockwise direction) indicated by an arrow b against the urging force of the spring 13. Therefore, the movable hook 11 is detached from the fixed hook 10 and engagement of both hooks is released, so that the locking of the cover 6 is also released.
When a hand is released from the button 7 in the state of FIG. 10, the cover 6 is kicked out outward (upward in FIG. 11) by the urging force of the spring 9 as illustrated in FIG. 11. By applying the hand to the kicked-out cover 6 and rotating the cover 6, it is possible to open the cover 6. In this case, the movable hook 11 is rotated about the shaft 12 in a direction (a clockwise direction) indicated by an arrow c of FIG. 11 by the urging force of the spring 13 and returns to the original position. However, as described above, since the cover 6 is kicked out and the fixed hook 10 is accordingly moved outward, the movable hook 11 is not engaged with the fixed hook 10.
On the other hand, in order to close the cover 6 from the opened state of FIG. 11, the cover 6 is pushed in as is. By so doing, the fixed hook 10 abuts the movable hook 11 to push the movable hook 11, so that the cover 6 is closed. When the cover 6 is completely closed, the abutting of the fixed hook 10 and the movable hook 11 is released, so that the movable hook 11 is rotated by the urging force of the spring 13 and is engaged with the fixed hook 10. Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the closed state of the cover 6 is locked.